Be Cool: Ultimate 120/140 mm Fans Roundup. Page 4

After a month of hard work and numerous experiments on a new unique testbed we are proud to offer you a roundup including 57 models of fans from 25 different product series collected from all over the world.

Akasa UltraQuiet Amber (AK-183-L2B)

The next model is Akasa UltraQuiet Amber (AK-183-L2B) that ships in clear plastic blister package with a cardboard insert inside:

The back of the package enlists brief fan specs in five languages. The bundled accessories include a PATA power connector and four self-tapping screws:

The fan is made in China and consists of a semitransparent plastic frame and amber-red fan sitting on four supporting rods and rotating counterclockwise:

The fan measures 120x120x25 mm. It has 7 blades and a rotor with 41 mm diameter. It has a pretty short power cable of only 300 mm:

Among the distinguishing features of Akasa UltraQuiet Amber fan I should mention blades with large sweep area and more aggressive angle and a small lug right at the rotor:

The fan rotates with constant speed of 1400 RPM. At this speed the fan should create 44.8 CFM airflow, which is a very modest number for this speed. The static pressure is claimed to be at 1.100 mmH2O, while the level of noise should be no higher than 18 dBA.

The fan uses a double ball bearing with 80,000 hours MTBF. The “KM121225LB” marking on the rotor sticker indicates that it was originally made by Yen Sun Technology Corporation (YS Tech):

The same sticker lists the electrical specs of the fan. It is priced at $14.

Let’s see what Akasa UltraQuiet Amber fan is capable of:

The fan generates a decent airflow in its entire supported range and consumes half of the power claimed by the specs. It starts at 3.6 V and can keep rotating up until the voltage drops down to 1.7 V, which indicates high quality of the employed bearing. However, all this good is totally ruined by the crackling sound produced by the bearing, which is so strong and annoying that I nicknamed this fan “Chinese economy scooter”. This fan’s acoustics is the worst of all tested today. There is no subjective acoustic comfort around this fan, but our noise meter showed that the noise dropped to 33 dBA around 660 RPM.